The German Renaissance

The Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna openend to the public in 1891. Gustav Klimt, his younger brother Ernst, and Franz Matsch executed forty paintings to decorate the spaces between the columns and above the arcades along the walls of the KHM’s main staircase. Personifications – either male and female, or female only – symbolize different stylistic periods, regions or centers of art. All paintings were executed in oil on canvas in the Artists’ studio; in 1891, six months before the formal opening of the museum, they were glued to the walls of the main staircase. The characteristic head of Emperor Rudolph II (1552-1612) together with the inscription dominates the composition. Klimt’s model was the bronze bust by the sculptor to the imperial court, Adriaen de Vries (1607; KHM, Kunstkammer, Inv. No. 5491). Dressed in costumes which are documented, for example, in portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98-1543), the figures lean in a relaxed and casual fashion against the edge of the spandrels. The young woman examines a coconut goblet, similar to that created in Augsburg around 1570, which is to be found in the Kunstkammer (Inv. No. KK 919). The dignified old man in court costume grasps a closed book in his hand. For further Information on the building see: Cäcilia Bischoff, The Kunsthistorisches Museum. History, Architecture, Decoration, Vienna 2010